1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to dynamically establishing broadband QoS (Quality of Service) connections, on demand, between peers on a network to guarantee application specific IP QoS via the combination of ATM switched virtual connections (SVCs) and permanent virtual connection (PVCs).
2. Background Information
Network carriers are currently providing broadband access services to a large number of subscribers using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and digital subscriber lines (DSL). Under the current paradigm, subscribers connect to an Internet service provider (ISP) using a pre-existing static point-to-point or “nailed up” connection, e.g., a permanent virtual circuit (PVC). Once the connection has been established the subscriber can communicate to the ISP, via the connection, using various bridge or router modes. In the case of bridge mode, typically point-to-point protocol (PPP) or point-to-point protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) is used to set up the user sessions and carry the user IP packets to the ISP. When a subscriber wishes to communicate with a peer subscriber, all communications via IP packets travel through the ISP, thus suffering implementation complexity and operational unfeasibility for supporting application specific QoS.
It would be desirable to have a system that permits a subscriber to connect to a peer subscriber via a guaranteed quality of service (QoS) connection, across the ATM network, while bypassing the ISP.